Tuesday, May 17, 2011

This morning started like any other until we came downstairs and saw something outside in the backyard. Ever since the last time I saw something outside, the topic of my Corgis and cats and coyotes, oh my!, post, I'm ever wary to look in the backyard for something creepy that could pounce on an unsuspecting corgi.

This morning, I saw this...

I then watched as it hopped around the yard eating the weeds and dandelions, (YAY!). Lord knows we could stand to lose a few and feed a cute little rabbit at the same time.

If you look closely, you'll see a dandelion head sticking out of its mouth.

As it approached the door, Gimli saw it and was not amused there was a rabbit in his yard and he was not allowed to go outside. Yes, I'm such an evil owner.

Here's Gimli's reaction:

After the commotion of Gimli and I squealing over the rabbit, he ran off through the gate and into the neighbor's garden. Only to return to our yard this evening, where I was a bit braver to get this picture.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

For anyone that doesn't know about "fraps", its something that corgis do. Its an acronym for "frantically running around playing". Often, you'll be playing with your dog and then it becomes so excited, it runs around like a little Tasmanian Devil!

It looks something like this. This is a video from Jespah1 on YouTube, I don't have a video of Gimli frapping.

This morning, Gimli went upstairs with Mike and I could hear them playing fetch in the hallway. All of a sudden, Gimli raced down the stairs and toward where I was sitting at the back of the house. He then ran around the living room about 6 times.

Usually when we say, "Frappo!", it makes him go faster and he headed back to the front of the house and then back where he ran around the dining room table a few times before returning to the living room to zoom around some more!

Note, this was actually posted on 5/11, but because Blogger ran into some technical difficulties, system wide, they pulled all posts after 5/10. As a result, my post tags were affected with strange ascii characters in them. When I removed it from this post, it posted it as today, 5/15.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

An update on my 2011 list. Not too many updates this time around, next month will be better!

1. Read More, nothing special, just reading.

2. Pay attention to my blog and post more - already started

3. Join BlogHer

4. Attend BlogHer 2011, wherever it is

5. Do what I need to do to get off one of my medications

6. Go to the Zoo - Spoke to a friend, we are going to go once the weather warms up.

7. Make a better attempt at brushing Gimli more than once a week

8. To achieve this, setup a grooming table in the laundry room - Started looking at grooming tables and reached out to a carpenter friend of mine. Will be able to make a better decision in a few weeks.

9. Start expanding the list of meals that I can cook from memory

10. Start branching out and cooking different things, planning is key and laziness is no excuse - Started planning out our dinners a week in advance, we'll see how this goes!

13. Get a 2nd corgi - Spoke with a breeder the other night, hopefully going to meet a female Cardigan Welsh Corgi puppy next weekend!

14. Learn to walk two of them properly

15. Improve Gimli’s recall

16. Make a Pooh Bear gingerbread house

17. See The Lion King stage show- bought tickets for June!

18. Continue with the No Complaint experiment - ongoing

19. Take more visits to The Arboretum and see our coyote friend again - Gimli and I went again today 4/30 now that the weather is better. It was only for about 1/2 hour, but this is totally something I can see myself doing every week or every two weeks.

20. Get off my butt and be more active -I've totally lapsed on this one. I plan to pick it up again in a few weeks.

21. Play with Gimli in the snow - went out with him in February when we had snow, had a great time romping and wrestling in the snow.

22. Try to make a snow ‘animal’

23. Get more sleep-The pillows are helping a little, but I feel I need to take naps and catch up on sleep. I tend to be sleepy in the afternoon and unable to bring myself out of bed, which I figure is my left over sleep debt that I'm continually trying to repay.

24. Read Brene Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection and apply it to myself

28. See the Tim Burton exhibit- Saw this 2/26. I found myself wondering what other things Burton would have done if time and space warped and he met Walt Disney himself.

29. Go to the Animal mass with Jeannie

30. Make it to Trinidad to introduce Mike to the rest of my crazy family, hopefully I'll still be married by the time we return.

31. Go to the Winter Walk with your dog - Unfortunately, this was canceled due to a lack of attendees. I am still on record and they've said they will try to hold it again in Feb/March etc, so we'll see. If they choose to hold it again, I will definitely attend.

32. Start a new job - started Feb. 1st

33. Eat at a Summerlicious restaurant

34. Write a letter to Queen Elizabeth II for her birthday and include pictures of Gimli. -Sent it out before we went on vacation!

35. Lose anywhere from 5-10 lbs, I'm 122 lbs now. Its deliberately vague as I'm really only striving to look better in my clothes. I'm unsure if 5 or 10 lbs will do it, so starting off small. -working on it with eating better (cutting out a great deal of unhealthy food and doing Wii Fit.) I can already tell something's working, I now HAVE to wear a belt with jeans.

36. See Rammstein again- Went on 5/8 and we had an awesome time, post coming!

38. Stop playing that soul sucking MMO that Mike and I started together, but I've been left in the dust - Officially canceled my account. Have uninstalled and surprisingly I don't feel any need to return to it.

39. Do the Toronto Zombie Walk and bring Gimli along with us. I had aspirations of going in 2010, but it didn't happen. I feel this year will be different and I'd like to do it!

40. Take a Photography class this year.

41. Speaking of photography, I was looking through my pictures tonight and I was saddened there aren't more pictures of Mike and I. This needs to be rectified.

42. Start going to the Spa to get regular massages, budget permitting of course.

43. Sign up for the 5k walk at the Scotia Bank marathon later in the year.

44. Return to the Church. This has been gnawing at me over the past few months and I keep telling myself to do it, but I haven't yet. It seems whenever I put things down on this list, they start getting done, so here it is.

We were on a walk this evening and came upon the same toddler and his mother that I wrote about here. And yes, the toddler had the same hockey stick and he still wanted to come over and hit say hi to Gimli.

Monday, May 2, 2011

We picked up our new Venza on Friday and I drove my Mazda 3 hatch for the last time. I will admit I was a little sad taking him to the Toyota dealership where he was traded in. I drove him home the first time and I wanted to drive him back one last time. Mike was going to drive, but when I told him to move over, he did so without hesitation.

He was my first brand new car. He was the car we used to bring home Gimli. Those scratches on the inside rear passenger door, its us playing Tetris to fit Gimli's crate into the back. I asked for speed and he gave it to me, every time, no questions asked. He also had the shifter option to give you more speed, but we were too chicken to try it out.

He was black, not the best color to have if you ever want your car to look clean, but when he was clean, he was "Niiiiiicee!" The lights glinted off the sides and roof like a mirror. I always regretted not having the windows tinted in that car. The inside dashboard glowed red at night, like a smoldering fire. I also wanted to get a vanity plate of "Evil Queen" or something similar. I felt it fit me and it fit the car, except the Ministry of Transportation declined it and I never submitted a replacement. But to us and our friends, he was always referred to as "Evil Queen".

Goodbye Evil Queen, I'm sure your next owner will appreciate the endless supply of corgi hair appearing from every crevice!